A major global outage affecting Microsoft services has disrupted businesses, government institutions and millions of users across several countries, highlighting the growing dependence of organisations on digital communication and cloud-based technology.
The disruption, which began on Thursday, November 12, affected several widely used Microsoft 365 services, including Outlook, Microsoft Teams and its artificial intelligence assistant Copilot. Users reported difficulties accessing email accounts, sending and receiving messages, managing calendars and participating in virtual meetings.
According to reports, the outage lasted more than 12 hours, with disruptions spreading across 74 countries and territories. At its peak, outage-tracking platform Downdetector recorded nearly 130,000 reports of problems accessing Outlook.
The impact extended beyond individual users, affecting government agencies, financial institutions, airlines and major businesses. In the United Kingdom, the National Health Service (NHS) and Metropolitan Police experienced operational challenges, while government agencies in Japan, Singapore, Australia and the Philippines also reported disruptions.
Several organisations were forced to activate contingency measures, including alternative communication systems, telephone calls and paper-based records. Financial institutions and trading companies also experienced delays, with some reverting to fax machines to confirm transactions. Certain companies postponed business announcements and earnings-related activities.
Microsoft attributed the disruption to infrastructure and server-related problems that affected connectivity across its services. The company reported that some servers had unexpectedly become unavailable and that efforts to restore normal operations were complicated by continued infrastructure instability.
The technology giant said it had no indication that the incident was caused by malicious activity or a cyberattack. On Friday, November 13, Microsoft reported positive results in improving server stability following the application of a technical patch, while engineers continued working to restore affected services and monitor recovery across regions.
The incident has renewed concerns about the risks associated with widespread dependence on a small number of technology providers. Experts have highlighted the importance of maintaining backup systems, alternative communication channels and stronger business continuity plans to minimise the impact of major technology disruptions.
As organisations increasingly rely on cloud platforms and integrated digital services, the outage serves as a reminder that even the world’s largest technology providers are vulnerable to infrastructure failures, with consequences that can extend across industries and national borders.
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